Monday, June 13, 2011

The 3 Rivers Arts Festival is over and now the assessment begins. An estimated 300,000 people attended the 10 day event which experienced good weather except for a brief windstorm June 7 which did cause damage to some art.Marguerite Jarrett Marks, the festival coordinator for the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, says they use several criteria to evaluate the festival and by gathering consumer input on site as well as feedback from the artists. She says they had steady crowds during the day and evening hours each day....

"Many, many artists in the Artists' Market said they had their best festival ever. People complimented the organization of the festival and just the overall mood. When you're down there all the time, you can generally tell what the experience is like."This year's festival also had an environmental twist with displays on how visitors could recycle and even compost the waste from the food items they purchased on site, as well as free water stations with compostable cups.Jarrett Marks says this saved families money and helped the environment. She says as of Sunday morning, they dispensed 5,200 gallons of water which she says is the equivalent of 33,000 plastic water bottles.The festival coordinator says they start planning for next year, now..."We like to get feedback from people when it's fresh in their minds. So I encourage people to send their suggestions. We also go through the survey results. We try to get that done as quickly as possible. The more planning time we have, the better festival we can produce."